tonight on "nightline," sex, lies and zumba. an exercise instructor is accused of running a prostitution operation with a secret client list that has all the neighbors holding their breath. we track down the mystery woman behind the scandal rocking a quiet town in maine. hidden oprah. in a "nightline" exclusive, we have an intimate portrait of the television titan. tonight, oprah winfrey tells us what drives her to treat 72 girls like the daughters she never had. >> i think i've come into my mothering space. >> why her real passion and deepest sorrows are tied up in a far-away place. and from giant-nosed monkeys to homely pastel dolphins. meet one woman whose passion is the animal kingdom's freaks and creeps. >> announcer: from the global

resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," october 12th, 2012. >> good evening, i'm bill weir. it is a new england hamlet best know for beaches and blueberry fields. but tonight, kennebunk, maine, is reeling. over charges that the local latin dance-themed fitness studio was also home to a thriving prostitution ring. the exercise instructor at the center of the case allegedly kept a secret list that now threatens to expose over 100 clients. and if they start naming names in a town of only 10,000, oh, you can imagine the impact. here's abc's john schriffen. >> reporter: she's a zumba instructor with an alleged side business. 29-year-old alexis wright, seen here in this video for her now shuttered zumba dance studio. wright is at the center of a sex scandal that's shaken this quiet

new england hamlet to its roots. complete with alleged sex tapes and a potentially revealing and devastating list of client names. this week, she was charged with over 100 counts of prostitution and invasion of privacy. >> not guilty. >> reporter: along with her alleged business partner, 57-year-old mark strong. >> not guilty, your honor. >> reporter: we went to her house today. hello? anybody home? but -- you don't want to talk about the allegations? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: did you do it? >> no comment. >> reporter: did you run a prostitution ring? >> i will pick up the phone and i will call the police. >> reporter: wright operated the pura vida zumba studio, in kenna bunk, maine. just a few miles down the road from the exclusive summer compound of the bush family where bush number one still has a summer place, where george w. bush spent his boyhood summers and where the whole clan still vacations today. her studio closed in august after wright fell behind on the rent. area resident maureen george took her class. >> i just didn't feel she

related as well to the participants. >> i thought she was a little -- i don't know, not risque, but a little flirtatious at times with a couple of the male participants of the class. but i mean, it's zumba, you're there to have fun. >> reporter: the indictment alleges she secretly recorded over 100 hours of video with her clients. she already had uploaded amateur porn videos of herself. >> if you googled her name, there were some very pornographic videos that you could easily pull up. >> reporter: but at the heart of the scandal, what everyone in kennebunk is waiting to see, a list of names, alleged clients kept by wright. do you want to see the list yourself? >> absolutely. >> reporter: why is that? >> because i'm curious. just like everybody else in town. >> reporter: who is on the list? dan lilley is the attorney for mark strong. >> all i can tell you is, there seems to be every occupation on there. i'm told there's police officers and firemen, accountants and tv

personalities and lawyers and -- it's -- it runs the gamut of americana, at least in maine. >> reporter: and what could the list mean? >> there's a separate list with names and certain codes that would seem to reflect sexual acts. and amounts, you know, there would be amount of $150, in one case, i think it was $1,500. >> reporter: the judge has said that she won't block the release of the names, but that decision has been appealed to maine supreme court. wright's attorney didn't respond to requests for an interview. laura is the editor of the local paper, "the york county coast star." they've covered the scandal since the summer when strong was arrested. when you first started covering the story, did you think it would this big? >> it's become even bigger than we thought it would initially. >> reporter: she knows there will be fallout when and if the names are made public. >> i think there's going to be a lot of public ugliness. there's going to be a lot of difficult months ahead. >> reporter: there have been

high profile prostitution cases in the past. heidi fleiss, to name but one. but not in such a small community where everyone knows one another. many residents are worried about the innocent victims. how do you see this story affecting the kids of this community? >> my own daughter is in high school and has had people really angrily say to her, it's not right that the papers are going to print this, it's not right what your mom is going to do. >> everybody is waiting with bated breath. the schools have dealt with it because the kids might have a problem with it if they know somebody, if their parents, their father or whatever, is involved with it. going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. >> reporter: as the leaves begin to fall, many are hoping the scandal will soon get swept away and forgotten. so this picturesque town can get back to normal. for "nightline," i'm john schriffen in kennebunk, maine. >> our thanks to john for that. coming up next, in a "nightline" exclusive, if you think you know everything about oprah winfrey, well, think again. a candid interview about the young women she treats as her own daughters.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> for 25 years, oprah winfrey ruled daytime television, with the power to instantly transform author into best seller or doctor into famous medical guru. but it was offscreen and in a far-away place she pursued her deepest dream of changing lives. she told abc's juju chang about the girls she thinks of as her own daughters, in this "nightline" exclusive. >> as a mother, as just a person who has been a part of your lives for the past four, five years, i never have been more proud.

i think you all were exemplary. you made me a really proud mama. >> reporter: she may not have biological children, but thanks to the first graduates of the oprah winfrey leadership academy for girls, oprah says she now understands the trials and tribulations, as well as the joys of parenthood. >> nice to see you! >> reporter: all seen in the documentary, "the first graduating class." so, when they call you momma oprah, that's for sure. >> if you were there for more than ten minutes, they would call you sis juju. >> reporter: no matter who you're with, no matter what you're doing, if one of these girls calls, you pick up the phone? >> oh, yes. we're all texting all the time. as a matter of fact, it just happened this morning and i was on the phone last night for an hour one of them trying to watch the debate. like, okay, trying to watch the debate, but okay, i'll hear what you're saying. yes. i think i've come into my mothering space in a way that was wholly, wholly, so unexpected. i just -- i -- i knew from the

moment that i met these girls that i was going to fall in love with them and i did. >> reporter: the maternal bonding began five years ago, as a leap of philanthropic faith, inspired by the venerable nelson mandela. >> what is the single life-changing, trajectory-changing moment for me, was being exposed to a world of education that offered me a new insight into how i saw the world. so, i just wanted to do that for somebody else, that's all. >> reporter: out of thousands of applicants, oprah hand-picked 72 girls. >> do you think i'm good enough to be selected to go to the school? >> i think that you are. good enough. >> reporter: girls from shanty towns. >> 65 million living together in the yard. >> the house that i live in with my mom is very small. >> reporter: girls who experienced trauma and the

hardships ingrained in poverty. girls a lot like a young oprah winfrey. >> at the time that i grew up in mississippi, it was very much like south africa. it was apartheid mississippi. it was. and segregated schools, no running water, no electricity. which was just the way, you don't think, oh, gee, everybody else has it and i don't. that's just the way i grew up. it's amazing that i've come from that to my own ipad. >> reporter: the girls and their families understood the life-altering gift of education. >> you will be a part of the very first class of the oprah winfrey -- >> reporter: in a setting so luxurious, simple amenities were cause for celebration. one of the moments that i thought so captures the gap that you are trying to bridge with these girls when is they react to the plumbing. >> ah, yeah, that is still one of my favorite moments. >> reporter: me, too. >> talk about favorite things. they were most excited, of course, about the plumbing, because it means i can take a shower, i don't have to go and find buckets of water that is one or two kilometers away.

i don't have to share a pump on a yard with 56 other people. i can have my own bed. i can have -- i can flush the toilet! >> reporter: but there was also scandal. when a female dorm adviser was charged with sexually molesting several girls, oprah fired her and other staffers. but instead of distancing herself, she flew to south africa to personally apologize to the students and their parents. >> you learn from your mistakes. you learn by doing. and if i had it to do over again, i probably wouldn't have done it this way. certainly, i know enough now that i can help other people. >> reporter: "forbes" magazine estimates that the 58-year-old billionaire media mogul has devoted roughly $400 million of her fortune towards education. but still, some may wonder -- why is oprah investing in south africa when she should be investing -- >> to me, i don't look at it just as an investment in south africa. but as a gift to the world. all of the girls are going to be in places all over the world.

wherever the future of the world is decided, those girls will be sitting at the table. that's my great hope and desire for them. >> reporter: but the truth is, she's invested heavily in the u.s., as well. 400 scholarship winners, the so-called sons of oprah, paid tribute. ♪ because we knew you >> reporter: in the emotional high point at the end of the 25-year run on the oprah show. the film follows the girls' epic journey from the poorest townships of south africa all the way to graduation. >> there were many days during these past five years where i've asked myself, what were you thinking? what were you thinking, you could build a school? i was thinking about this day. i was thinking about this day with them walking in triumph across this stage in their white

dresses. >> ladies and gentlemen, the class of 2011. >> reporter: so, like any nervous mom sending kids off to college, six of them here in the u.s., shopping for dorm furnishings with them left her feeling like an empty nester. >> the very first morning that the girls from the united states were here and we were all going to -- i can't believe i'm weeping over target and bed, bath and beyond. but the morning we were all getting dressed to go shopping for their college dorms, i mean, i -- it's -- the moment it hit me. >> reporter: it's been a journey, too, for oprah. her cable network own has struggled. but recently, it's enjoyed a ratings uptick. >> at first, i was sort of bogged down and if you had asked me this three months ago, i probably would have had a different feeling about it, like, ah, it's so challenging. now, i can see the light. i look at it as though i was

climbing kilimanjaro and i was just -- had my head to the ground and one foot in front of the other. now, i can see the summit. >> reporter: isn't that nice? >> i can see the summit. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm juju chang in washington, d.c. >> "the first graduating class" oprah winfrey leadership academy for girls" airs sunday on own. and just ahead, we stick out the weirdest looking critters in all the animal kingdom. ingdom. overmany disco thine customers! [old english accent] safe driver, multi-car, paid in full -- a most fulsome bounty indeed, lord jamie. thou cometh and we thy saveth! what are you doing? we doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. oh, you have any of those homeowners discounts? here we go. thank you. he took my shield, my lady. these are troubling times in the kingdom. more discounts than we knoweth what to do with. now that's progressive.

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jaguars get sports cars named after them. pandas get top billing in environmental fund-raisers and then there are the critters that are the butt of the joke in a chain e-mail. but abc's matt gutman met one woman who believes even the most homeliest animals need love, too. >> reporter: they are the mythical creatures lurking in the shallows of the amazon. just bit me in the leg! >> i thought that was you rubbing my leg with your foot! >> reporter: brazil's fabled pink river dolphins, up to ten feet long. wild. powerful. and, let's fate, seriously ugly. just look at that pback, the h k hooked nose, the whiskers. do they have plastic surgery here?

but as luzieucy cooke reminds u beauty is in the eye of the beholder. >> they don't look all cute like flipper. >> reporter: lucy is the host of nat geo wild's "freaks and creeps." those that hit every branch, falling all the jungle's ugly tree. >> oh! >> reporter: for her, ugly is cute. and cute is saccarine and annoying. >> ugly animals need love, too, and i'm sick to death of watching shows about pandas and lions and tigers. >> reporter: she prefers the tasmanian devil. lucy says these odd balls need love, too. she's tired of all the money and research and conservation efforts going to charismatic species and not to equally endangered species like, say these monkeys with their

massive, floppy noses and that donald trump hair. she's sometimes potty mouthed. >> i'm just telling you [ bleep ] [ bleep ] [ bleep ] you use it, 0iso, don't shoot m ass, all right? >> reporter: and obsessed with animal sex. >> i want to hunt what can only be described as the world's weirdest penis. >> reporter: be careful what you ask lucy. as far as she's concerned, there is no such thing as tmi. i heard that dolphins are very promise cue was. >> dolphins have gay sex, so, you get them botting each other's blow holes, actually. >> reporter: on that note, we leave the water and head into the jungle, because i have a surprise of my own for lucy. got a gift for you here. i know you like these little buggers. >> aw! >> sweet little guy. >> oh, you want a hug. >> reporter: careful with the claws. really? >> oh, look at your beautiful face! >> reporter: our new friend is a

sloth, who moves so slowly there's an entire eco-system growing in his father. >> look at the side of the tick on him. >> reporter: that's wonderful. >> want to know the only thing a sloth does quickly? they have sex really quickly. >> reporter: they have energy for certain things. she's even learned to mimic their mating call. >> he's gripping me really hard now. he's seriously turned on right now. off you go. that's it. there's a girl up there. >> reporter: as our new friend races away at the speed of, oh, about a foot a minute, lucy reminds us that just because an animal is odd doesn't mean it's not important. >> nature's like a game of jenga. you don't know which block will make the whole thing collapse and it's not necessarily the cute and fluffy bits. >> reporter: i'm matt gutman for "nightline" in the amazon, brazil. >> "freaks and creeps" airs october 17th.